"The Baseball Spy" sparked a fresh scandal for the struggling franchise after a covert surveillance attempt led to his firing and a league-wide investigation into sign-stealing.
The season couldn't get much worse than it already is for the Los Angeles Angels, as their 40-61 record as of Tuesday evening has them at the bottom of the American League standings. If there’s one lesson Angels fans have learned, however, it can always somehow get worse.
A recent report from The Athletic’s Sam Blum has brought yet another low for a franchise that has endured far too many over the last decade. In his article posted on Tuesday, Blum states that an Angels scout was fired earlier in the season after filming coaches of the Colorado Rockies on his cell phone while working in the stands.
According to Blum, Justin Prinstein, who calls himself “The Baseball Spy”, was only hired by the club in December. When the Angels front office was alerted to the incident, then general manager Perry Minasian swiftly fired Prinstein.
The incident came in the buildup to a homestand against Colorado, in which the Angels would host the Rockies from June 1-3. Prinstein was spotted filming Rockies coaches by a Rockies organization member, who then went on to report the incident to the league office.
“It’s unclear who exactly Prinstein was filming on the Rockies, or for what purpose,” Blum wrote. Colorado was, at the time, calling pitches from the dugout — a practice that requires coaches to relay signs.”
Though technology being used in the game is nothing new, including the use of videos, the use of technology to steal or decode signs is against the rules of the MLB.
According to Blum, both the Angels and Rockies believe Prinstein “acted on his own initiative,” and therefore, the Angels were not punished for the illegal video-taking by the league.
The Angels, Rockies, and the MLB all declined to comment on the report, according to Blum, who also reached out to Prinstein himself, who failed to respond but instead locked his Twitter/X account on Friday after being reached out to about the incident.
In the latest point-and-laugh report coming from the Angels, the question is why Prinstein was using his cell phone to video Rockies coaches while they were relaying signs from the dugout. The ex-Angels scout did not need to use the illegal technology, and he made a fool out of himself and the organization in the process.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the Angels lost two of three games in the Rockies series. Head scratches and face palms all around.
